On Sep  1 13:05, Michael Enright wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 12:48 PM, Roger Pack  wrote:
> > It appears the problem lies with creating a file named "NUL" windows
> > utilities just don't know how to deal with it (you can recreate it by
> > creating a folder, then from cygwin bash $ touch NUL) then try and
> > remove the folder with windows explorer.
> 
> The utilities "know" how to deal with it, given their design:
> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/10/22/55388.aspx

And then there's

https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-specialnames.html#pathnames-dosdevices

You can create and delete those files even in CMD, btw.  You just have
to use the long pathname prefix "\\?\", e.g.:

  bash$ cmd /c 'echo foo > \\?\c:\cygwin64\home\corinna\nul'
  bash$ ls -l nul
  -rwxr-xr-x 1 corinna vinschen 6 Sep  1 22:30 nul

delete with

  bash$ rm nul

or

  bash$ cmd /c 'del \\?\c:\cygwin64\home\corinna\nul'


Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Maintainer                 cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Red Hat